Cutter wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 14:47:DayZ is the current meme, like Minecraft was. It's the in thing to buy atm.

I don't think you understand what a meme is. Minecraft is still super popular, btw. Nothing past tense about it. They've sold about 54 million copies thus far and are still going strong. If Minecraft were available on Steam, it would probably be the top seller.

Sigh, why am I the only person around here who understands sociological concepts like what a meme is?

A meme (/&#712;mi&#720;m/ meem)[1] is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[3]

Does that help clarify it for you? Allow me to simplify. Little Johnny here's of a 'kewl' product or service that's getting popular. And like most of societies mouth breathers Little Johnny lacks the self-esteem to buck trends. So rather than risk social isolation he jumps on the bandwagon. Now Little Johnny is part of the "in-crowd", and his other little pea-brain pals have to join in or they risk being ostracized as well. See how that works?

The definition in the first paragraph doesn't match the definition in the second. The second describes a fad while the first is so broad that it can be applied to just about anything popular. When people speak of "meme" in a modern context, they are specifically referring to things like doge or ceiling cat or bucket walrus. While such memes do tend to be short-lived and could therefore be called fads, "fad" and "meme" are not necessarily synonymous.

The truth is that you simply dislike DayZ and don't understand its popularity and thus you feel obligated to dismiss its success as hollow and undeserved. It's a means of self-validation and lets you feel like your opinion is correct even if it conflicts with the opinions of the majority.

Can't believe you tried to run from your fuck-up with a cheap "The truth is ...", lol. Cutter was using the phrase correctly and you were very wrong faulting him for it.

As for Divinity being on #1 again... that's just great to see! Loving the game so much. On vacation in Italy atm, but I'd lie if I said I didn't miss my champions!

ESO in the list too, huh? Glad to see. There's allot of time and passion put into this game. You'll know if you'd tried it.

so that means Justin Beiber deserves his success? he is a supremely talented artist and thats why he's so popular?

He offers a product that many people are willing to pay for. That's why he's popular. Whether or not he has "talent" is completely subjective and largely irrelevant. People don't listen to Beiber because it's the cool thing to do. They listen to his music because they like it. So yes, he does deserve his success despite your personal opinion of his talent.

whether or not he is deserving of success or not is also a subjective opinion

you cant see that?

thats like saying people deserve to get murdered because someone wanted to murder them, so they did murder them

so that means Justin Beiber deserves his success? he is a supremely talented artist and thats why he's so popular?

He offers a product that many people are willing to pay for. That's why he's popular. Whether or not he has "talent" is completely subjective and largely irrelevant. People don't listen to Beiber because it's the cool thing to do. They listen to his music because they like it. So yes, he does deserve his success despite your personal opinion of his talent.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 21:32:It is a social experiment. Nothing more.

It's not a social experiment, it's a video game where literally the only thing to do is kill other players....so that's what people do. How in the hell is that so mind-blowing?! Seems like Captain Obvious to me.

Not only that, we were doing far worse things than this to people in games like Ultima Online looooong before DayZ came out. Someone spends two hours walking in/out of houses and then you show up and kill them...oh the inhumanity! We camped outside people's castles until they showed up, killed them, took their house keys, and they just lost a year and a half worth of work. This scale of griefing is an order of magnitude more than you can do to anyone in DayZ, yet people act like DayZ is some awful realization of mankind's base desires...puh lease.

It's a video game. A video game where people kill each other for lack of absolutely anything else to do, it is literally the point of the game. It's not a social experiment, people who believe that are as nutty as Jack Thompson or the anti-video game media who think video games are a realistic portrayal of real life behavior. Take off your tinfoil hats.

bhcompy wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:06:What the hell is the problem with DayZ? It's a goddamn positive development in gaming. It requires patience, it's not from a AAA studio, it has a great deal of customization available, and it's hard. This is what PC gaming is supposed to have in spades.

I think the problem is that it's not close to being finished and the completion date isn't even on the horizon.

jacobvandy wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 15:17:Lol, anybody would kill to have a "was" like Minecraft still is... Nothing else on the Steam Top 10 would ever come close. They grossed half a million bucks in the past 24 hours, on the PC alone, which is probably more than some of the games on this list did all of last week.

Jerykk wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:42:The truth is that you simply dislike DayZ and don't understand its popularity and thus you feel obligated to dismiss its success as hollow and undeserved. It's a means of self-validation and lets you feel like your opinion is correct even if it conflicts with the opinions of the majority.

so that means Justin Beiber deserves his success? he is a supremely talented artist and thats why he's so popular?

also - btw:

84 percent of the world population has faith; a third are Christian. “Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group,”

so that must mean that God is real, right? the majority agrees with it

I can't speak for others, but I personally dislike DayZ because it's the poster child for:

1) Survival Horror pk fest games. This may be a plus for some, of course. 2) Unfinished Alpha/beta level projects that are being sold as retail.3) Zombie saturation/overexposure in games.4) being an extremely buggy game, partially due to 2, but also due to Engine choice.

It also will probably not actually be finished in our lifetimes, but let's give the developers the benefit of the doubt. If people are actually enjoying DayZ in spite of all that, hey, great. I know plenty of people who regret their purchase though. I played the freeware mod version and just wasn't that interested.

Jerykk wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:42:The truth is that you simply dislike DayZ and don't understand its popularity and thus you feel obligated to dismiss its success as hollow and undeserved. It's a means of self-validation and lets you feel like your opinion is correct even if it conflicts with the opinions of the majority.

bhcompy wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:06:What the hell is the problem with DayZ? It's a goddamn positive development in gaming. It requires patience, it's not from a AAA studio, it has a great deal of customization available, and it's hard. This is what PC gaming is supposed to have in spades.

I think the problem is that it's not close to being finished and the completion date isn't even on the horizon.

DayZ won't ever be complete. They'll always find things to add to it. Sure, it's not finished but the core gameplay is not going to be changing all that much. Aside from the many bugs, which it will always have because it's the Arma engine, I consider the game complete enough to be very playable, and has been for some time.

It reminds me of Codename Eagle/BF1942. Buggy with very unpolished gameplay, but fun as hell. I'm okay with that, because if I'm having fun, that's all that matters.

Cutter wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 14:47:DayZ is the current meme, like Minecraft was. It's the in thing to buy atm.

I don't think you understand what a meme is. Minecraft is still super popular, btw. Nothing past tense about it. They've sold about 54 million copies thus far and are still going strong. If Minecraft were available on Steam, it would probably be the top seller.

Sigh, why am I the only person around here who understands sociological concepts like what a meme is?

A meme (/&#712;mi&#720;m/ meem)[1] is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[3]

Does that help clarify it for you? Allow me to simplify. Little Johnny here's of a 'kewl' product or service that's getting popular. And like most of societies mouth breathers Little Johnny lacks the self-esteem to buck trends. So rather than risk social isolation he jumps on the bandwagon. Now Little Johnny is part of the "in-crowd", and his other little pea-brain pals have to join in or they risk being ostracized as well. See how that works?

The definition in the first paragraph doesn't match the definition in the second. The second describes a fad while the first is so broad that it can be applied to just about anything popular. When people speak of "meme" in a modern context, they are specifically referring to things like doge or ceiling cat or bucket walrus. While such memes do tend to be short-lived and could therefore be called fads, "fad" and "meme" are not necessarily synonymous.

The truth is that you simply dislike DayZ and don't understand its popularity and thus you feel obligated to dismiss its success as hollow and undeserved. It's a means of self-validation and lets you feel like your opinion is correct even if it conflicts with the opinions of the majority.

harlock wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:19:it sorta irks me when people just use MEMES as parlance for something purely on a second-hand basis.. so you get people writing shit like "wah-lah" on comment threads because theyve heard it before but have no fucking clue what the actual word is, just how it sounds

or how people say "they drank the koolaid" when describing people who swallow something hook line and sinker... without any clue of how that phrase actually refers to a mass suicide event

pretty much everyone does it.. its even more iritating when they try to get on a high horse about how their incomplete and fragmentary "understanding" of some turn of phrase or whatever is actually the one and only truth

I don't know that it's necessary to know the origin of a phrase in order to be able to use it. As long as you can use it correctly it should be fine.

bhcompy wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:06:What the hell is the problem with DayZ? It's a goddamn positive development in gaming. It requires patience, it's not from a AAA studio, it has a great deal of customization available, and it's hard. This is what PC gaming is supposed to have in spades.

I think the problem is that it's not close to being finished and the completion date isn't even on the horizon.

DayZ won't ever be complete. They'll always find things to add to it. Sure, it's not finished but the core gameplay is not going to be changing all that much. Aside from the many bugs, which it will always have because it's the Arma engine, I consider the game complete enough to be very playable, and has been for some time.

harlock wrote on Jul 20, 2014, 19:10:in one context, saying something is a "meme" is the modern way of saying something is "trendy"

in another context, it refers specifically to one-liners and gif images, or combinations of them

but the idea of a "meme" originally refers to quite a bit more than "ORLY?" pics and hamburger cats etc

Yes but even in its original meaning can you use it to refer to a product that everyone buys? All the kids around here have and play with kendamas. I would say kendamas are a fad or a trend but not a meme.

it sorta irks me when people just use MEMES as parlance for something purely on a second-hand basis.. so you get people writing shit like "wah-lah" on comment threads because theyve heard it before but have no fucking clue what the actual word is, just how it sounds

or how people say "they drank the koolaid" when describing people who swallow something hook line and sinker... without any clue of how that phrase actually refers to a mass suicide event

pretty much everyone does it.. its even more iritating when they try to get on a high horse about how their incomplete and fragmentary "understanding" of some turn of phrase or whatever is actually the one and only truth